Testaments Betrayed by Milan Kundera audiobook

Testaments Betrayed: An Essay in Nine Parts

By Milan Kundera
Translated by Linda Asher
Read by Graeme Malcolm

HarperAudio
7.61 Hours • • Unabridged
Format: Digital Download (In Stock)
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    ISBN: 9780062215642

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Milan Kundera has established himself as one of the great novelists of our time with such books as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Immortality and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. In Testaments Betrayed, he proves himself a brilliant defender of the moral rights of the artist and the respect due to a work of art and its creator's wishes. The betrayal of both—often by their most passionate proponents—is the principal theme of this extraordinary work. Readers will be particularly intrigued by Kundera's impassioned attack on society's shifting moral judgments and persecutions of art and artists, from Mayakovsky to Rushdie.

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Summary

Summary

Milan Kundera has established himself as one of the great novelists of our time with such books as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Immortality and The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. In Testaments Betrayed, he proves himself a brilliant defender of the moral rights of the artist and the respect due to a work of art and its creator's wishes. The betrayal of both—often by their most passionate proponents—is the principal theme of this extraordinary work. Readers will be particularly intrigued by Kundera's impassioned attack on society's shifting moral judgments and persecutions of art and artists, from Mayakovsky to Rushdie.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews

“A fascinating idiosyncratic meditation on the moral necessity of preserving the artist’s work from destructive appraisal…One reads this book to come into contact with one of the most stimulating minds of our era.” —Boston Globe
“Effervescent…The excitement of reading Mr. Kundera is that he unpredictably touches down almost everywhere, on rock music and on how characters are defined in fiction, on the nature of Josef K.’s guilt in The Trial and on Chopin’s attraction to shorter forms. Best of all, his sallies lead to fresh readings of such diverse writers as Rabelais, Cervantes, Tolstoy, Mann, Hemingway, Faulkner, Musil, Kafka, and Salman Rushdie.” —New York Times
“His insights prove deeper, his connections more daring and profound, the book itself more cohesive as Kundera illuminates in essay after essay the betrayed testaments of music and literature.” —Seattle Times
“Kundera once again celebrates the art of the novel, from its birth in a spirit of humor unique to European culture and sensibility—illustrated by some wonderful examples from the work of Rabelais and Cervantes—through its flowering in successive centuries. He celebrates the particular wisdom the novel offers about human existence.” —Amazon.com, editorial review
“In this stimulating, free-form essay, Czech novelist Kundera traces the evolution of the novel from Rabelais to Kafka and draws parallels between literature and music as he shuttles effortlessly among Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Chopin, Thomas Mann, Bach, and Andre Breton.” —Publishers Weekly
“Kundera, whose talents as a literary and music critic almost match his formidable gifts as a novelist, defends the artist against obtuse or perverse critics, disciples, and allies…Though he offers keen insights into music and literature, it is in his celebration of humor in the European novel that Kundera’s genial brilliance burns most brightly.” —Booklist
“Kundera skims along gracefully as a skater, touching several high points—in music and philosophy as much as literature—in a wholly original discussion of how fiction functions and how it is implicated in the fabric of Western culture.” —Library Journal
“A wide and engagingly erudite plea for keeping the faith and honoring the wishes of the illustrious dead, rather than insisting on our own self-serving agendas.” —Kirkus Reviews

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Author

Author Bio: Milan Kundera

Author Bio: Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera, the Franco-Czech novelist, was born in Brno and has lived in France, his second homeland, for more than twenty years. He is the author of the novels The Joke, Life Is Elsewhere, The Farewell Party, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Immortality, as well as the short story collection Laughable Loves—all originally written in Czech. Like Slowness, his two earlier nonfiction works, The Art of the Novel and Testaments Betrayed, were originally written in French.

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Details

Details

Available Formats : Digital Download
Runtime: 7.61
Audience: Adult
Language: English

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